Chapter 23 - I Want to See Her Again

“What did you do last night?”

The one who asked that question was Zed.

The brown-haired man looked down at one spot with a dumbfounded expression.

In his gaze was Ferda, lying in bed.

“Nothing happened.”

“Nothing happened, my ass. Does a person with nothing wrong lie in bed unable to move a muscle?”

Ferda was only moving his face, as if he had lost all strength below his neck.

Ferda always made his rounds in the morning.

Since he had shown his face every single day without fail, the fact that Ferda suddenly had not appeared meant one could guess that something had gone wrong.

And just as Zed had guessed, Ferda was lying in bed, unable even to move.

“If I say nothing happened, then nothing happened.”

“Sure, of course.”

Since he insisted to the end that nothing had happened, Zed could not press him any further.

'There is no need to tell him that story.'

He had been struck once by the attendant who blocked his way, nearly crushed to death by his fiancée, and then, because he poured every bit of strength he had into giving mana to that very fiancée, he had truly nearly died.

If he told that story in the simple world of nobles, it would be the perfect tale to be summarized with, are you an idiot?

So Ferda did not tell him, and savored it alone.

'It truly was an intense night.'

The pain from being struck in the arm had not yet faded, but he had received a reward equal to it.

'The royal countenance.'

It was normally a word used for the face of a sovereign, but it was also truly the face of a dragon.

Just as a tenant farmer might say that to behold the royal countenance once was the greatest honor, for Ferda as well, seeing that dragon’s face had been the greatest honor.

'That is my final memory.'

Ferda recalled Valdrova’s face from his final memory.

With that face as the last thing he saw, Ferda’s consciousness had cut out, and when he came to, he saw the ceiling above his bed.

And Zed’s face, too.

The bastard was still hovering nearby.

“I have one favor to ask.”

“What is it? Just say the word.”

“Move your face out of my sight. You are getting in the way of my afterglow.”

“...”

He did not want the lingering emotion that had yet to fade to be overlaid with the face of a pretty-looking man.

As Ferda had asked, Zed moved his face away.

Wearing a sour expression that seemed to say, *'Is he insane?' *

“How is Burnel’s research going?”

“That? He said we don’t have to keep doing that sickening business of cutting tendons and slicing flesh anymore. He was pretty good at it.”

Zed had attended to Burnel so that Burnel would not suffer any inconvenience in his research.

He had done so much that he could pride himself on having contributed a great deal.

“Are you certain?”

“It’s probably certain.”

“Do you know that probably and certain are words that cannot stand together?”

“I made that Burnel hyung sleep barely at all. Usually, if someone goes about three days without sleep, they go crazy and give up, but he was damn stubborn. He wanted to sleep, but he said the research was absolutely necessary and he couldn’t just gloss over it, crying and wailing the whole time, and yet he still sat there clinging to the research, so I’d say it’s certain.”

“I see.”

Although Burnel had suffered under Zed, Ferda was not particularly interested.

All things were painful by nature.

He merely focused on the happy fact that they had taken a great step into magical engineering.

“So how long do you have to stay lying down? Can you not work today?”

“That sounds about right. If I stay like this for about a day, I should recover on my own.”

“Mm... Do I have to attend to you?”

His voice was full of unmistakable annoyance.

“No, I want to be alone. There is something I must think about.”

“I have been waiting for those words with my fingers crossed. Ugh. I’m going to rest, so please don’t look for me for about two days.”

“Very well.”

Zed clicked his tongue and withdrew.

Ferda lay in bed and closed his eyes.

It was not because he meant to sleep again, but to recall his memory more vividly.

'A great harvest.'

Ferda sank into reminiscence.

'Truly, a great harvest.'

A picture drawn around small, glossy lips.

Two pairs of black horns and red hair.

Set in her two large eyes were golden cat’s eyes.

They sparkled, wet with moisture.

That was the polymorphed form of the Red Dragon, Valdrova.

'There were many parts that were rather unexpected.'

When Ferda had first seen her, she had appeared wearing armor.

And she had easily stood over two meters tall.

Yet, when he actually saw her, she was an ordinary woman’s height, only about a head shorter than him.

'And... she did not have a frightening face, either.'

Because Valdrova was the Aspect of Power, she possessed the most terrifying form among all dragons.

That was why she was such a terrifying dragon that no one dared look down on her lightly.

They said that when a dragon polymorphed, its impression changed according to that dragon’s nature.

When still, she would be an iron lady, a single bewitching rose.

An impression that would make anyone who dared grasp her carelessly be pricked by her thorns and regret their arrogance.

'... That was not it.'

She had a gentle look that was unlike a sovereign.

What determined a woman’s impression was the corners of her eyes, and the corners of her eyes slanted downward like a puppy’s.

It was a face that seemed better suited to a childlike beaming smile than to a mature one.

'If I think of her social anxiety and timid side, it does fit.'

A beauty in which everything was an exception, and everything was as expected.

Ferda thought as he recalled her appearance.

'I want to see her again.'

It was the first time he had felt such an emotion since he had developed the habit of remembering things in detail.

Even though the image was stamped clearly in his mind, he still wanted to see it in person.

'I want to see her again.'

At that moment, Ferda could understand how men suffering from lovesickness felt.

He wanted to tear at his hair or run out at once.

“It seems you are imagining something strange.”

Then, out of nowhere, he heard the voice of a young attendant.

“I would appreciate it if you stopped at once.”

When he opened his eyes, a girl with silver eyes was looking down at him.

Her attitude and expression were still businesslike.

“How is your body?”

Luri asked.

“I think it has improved.”

“Of course it should have improved. I treated you myself, after all.”

“You are quite skilled. It could not have been easy.”

“It was harder than when I healed Master’s wounds, but it was still manageable.”

Luri looked down at him with a frown.

Strangely, the way she looked at Ferda was rather different from usual.

“You could have died if things had gone wrong.”

Her tone was worried.

“To overload yourself while your mana circuits were operating... An ordinary human would have stopped from the burning pain long before that.”

“It was nothing to me.”

“I know. That you are the sort of person who likes such things.”

Ferda murmured words he could not understand, then continued.

“Thank you.”

She abruptly offered her thanks.

“For what?”

“It was the first time Master’s screams stopped.”

Her face was expressionless.

“And it was also the first time I saw Master fall asleep peacefully. That night, Lord Ferda, you did many things for Master.”

But sorrow seeped into her eyes.

“And I apologize.”

Her gaze slid down to Ferda’s right arm.

“For blowing off my arm?”

“...”

She bit her lip and nodded.

A dragon spawn acknowledging her sin and apologizing to a human.

“It is all right. I do not hold a grudge against you or hate you over something so trivial.”

“... Even after being hit that hard, you are all right?”

“My body has always been weak. It happens often, so you need not worry. I should be able to move soon enough.”

“Can you move now?”

“I will probably move when the time comes.”

Aside from his face, he still could not move at all.

“Have I not always said it? I think highly of your loyalty, at least. Like—”

“Like a dog?”

“Yes.”

Hearing that, Luri nodded.

“That is true. I am a bitch like a dog.”

“I did not go that far.”

Only then did Ferda realize.

This definitely sounded like an insult.

“In any case, you have done your best in what you could do. You did not force yourself to do what you could not and ruin everything, did you? That is enough.”

“...”

“I am expressing my thanks to you for taking care of her until I could meet her.”

“If you say so, then thank you.”

Luri’s expression brightened more than before.

The heavy atmosphere also eased to a certain extent.

“So how is my fiancée’s condition?”

“I was just about to speak about that...”

Her face grew heavy again.

“For the time being, do not even think of meeting her.”

Ferda’s face also turned serious.

“You said it was thanks to me and all that, did you not?”

“That is that, and this is this.”

Luri had returned to being the firm little maid.

Ferda asked her the reason.

“What is the reason?”

“The problem is what you did when you met her.”

“What I did? Merely because I held her hand?”

It was not grand enough to call an act when it was only holding hands.

“I mean giving her mana.”

“Is there something about that which could become a problem for your master?”

“If I must say, both are problems.”

Her eyes stared steadily at Ferda.

Ferda also recognized the seriousness and asked her.

“Did something happen to the Grand Duchess?”

“After meeting Lord Ferda and making contact with you, she began making female noises.”

Question marks filled his head.

“Female noises?”

“They are the sounds farthest removed from a king. They are the sounds she hates most after screams.”

Ferda could not get a sense of what that sound was.

But he did not try to find out, either.

“What is the problem with me?”

“Lord Ferda, in order to save Master, you wrung out mana to the point just before you lost your life.”

“Yes, as long as I do not die.”

“That kind of result-based logic will not work. If you wish to stand proudly as her fiancé, speak after you become at least 4th Circle.”

4th Circle.

The stage called the true beginning of a mage.

Ferda wondered why she had drawn the line so sharply at that standard.

So he quietly recalled through his senses the amount of mana he had sent out and calculated it.

'The amount of mana is exactly around 4th Circle.'

An amount of mana that would have been impossible if not for the Red Circle.

And a speed of mana recovery that would truly have been impossible if the Red Circle had not been rotating rapidly.

If even one beat of everything had gone wrong, Ferda would have become either a corpse or a cripple.

'But at the same time, it was possible because it was me.'

Being able to withstand and squeeze out such a rough flow was only possible because he was a mage who had reached the 9th Circle.

'But because I wrung myself out like this, it will be difficult to properly run the Red Circle for the time being.'

According to Ferda’s prediction, he would have to spend about a month before returning to his original condition.

“If you are to become the Consort, you need to start taking care of your body now. Do not take useless risks.”

Luri’s hands smoothed the wrinkles in the blanket and tucked it warmly up to beneath his neck.

It was a service she had never once provided until now.

“And today, you are to rest without thinking about anything. If you need something, I will come, so just call me. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand.”

Ferda obediently nodded.

“And congratulations.”

“For what?”

“Have you not reached the 3rd Circle?”

“?”

Ferda could not understand what she meant.

At least, not until he focused on his dantian.

'... What is this?'

Just as she said, three circles were rotating inside Ferda’s body.

He had reached the 3rd Circle.

* * *

The next day, Ferda confirmed that his body could move, returned to his office, and spoke with Burnel.

“I heard you made great progress in your research. Congratulations.”

“N-No. It is still only at the level of barely beginning...”

“A month and a half, was it? That is truly a revolutionary speed of progress.”

“I-It really is.”

Burnel answered in a trembling voice.

It truly was a revolutionary speed.

This month and a half had been more meaningful than the seven years of research he had done until now.

'The equipment is better, and the environment and specimens are better as well, but...'

Above all else, the pressure that had driven him was the greatest factor.

'Am I the type who becomes stronger when pushed to the limit?'

When a person could not sleep, it felt as if he would go mad.

Yet that was not entirely bad, because he had been able to grasp blind spots he had never identified before and patch the holes.

Through work that could only be done when he was not in his right mind, his hypotheses had become firm enough to move on to experiments.

“From now on, I no longer need living specimens, but instead, I will need many monster corpses...”

“Monster corpses?”

It was like looking for sand in a desert, or trees in a forest.

In the far east, monsters were everywhere.

“Grand Duchess Valdrova is active on the front line, so will it do if I catch the ones coming from there and bring them to you?”

“I heard she is catching things as large as houses. For me to research those... there are many problems. They are too large...”

“Then would it not do for you to become larger? I think a giantification spell would work. Echidna might be able to use it...”

“Ah, it is not a problem like giantification. The biggest problem is that if such corpses remain in the east for too long, erosion may occur, and it could become like the black land of the far east. I do not want to go that far. Besides, things that large may have different structures.”

“What do you mean, their structures may differ?”

“Yes. Since they are things that eat junk mana and grow in size, there is the hardness of the material formed by that, is there not? If it becomes too hard and the structure becomes too dense and compressed, crystallizing in the process, then rather, it cannot be used for research.”

Sensing that a technical discussion was about to begin, Ferda grasped only the context and shortened the conversation.

“I think I roughly understand what you mean. So you mean that in order to proceed step by step, you must begin with smaller ones first?”

“Yes. What I am researching now is mainly things similar to this one that the Regent caught for me, or things smaller than it. After all, that is more widely known, and if we are to obtain more, it will be easier...”

“So, roughly how many hundreds of monsters do you need?”

“Well...”

Burnel cautiously watched his reaction.

“At the very least... I think it would have to exceed 1,000...”

Ferda thought upon hearing that.

'He truly is a money pit like no other.'

He was making a request that would horrify not only ordinary nobles, but even the wealthy among the high-ranking who had plenty of money.

If Ferda had not known who this man was, he might have kicked him straight out beyond the castle gates.

But Ferda knew this man would succeed in the end.

“Understood. I will tell the lords for now.”

“Huh, w-will you be able to get that many?”

“Monsters are things that get caught by the dozens each day at the very least. Do you no longer need living ones?”

“I-It would be nice to have them, but they do have to be managed, after all...”

“Do not worry. Zed seems to do well when it comes to management, so I will attach Zed to you.”

“No! I do not need that! It is not as if there will be visible progress like in the initial stage! Yes! I do not need him! So you do not have to tell him, ha ha ha! Please! Spare me!”

Burnel vehemently asked him to take it back.

“If you say so.”

“S-So how do you plan to obtain the corpses? Must we go hunting again?”

“Hmm...”

Capturing one alive was something Ferda could manage, which was why he had done it, but he could not go hunting every time.

“The most standard method would be to put up a bounty, but...”

Even now, a great deal of money was going out for facilities and equipment, so increasing it further, even by a pittance, was a burden.

“For the initial supply, it would be best to make them offer them as tribute.”

“Tribute...?”

Ferda answered Burnel, who asked with a foolish expression.

“The world is full of fools.”

Ferda also knew how to lure those fools.